Press Releases

Canon U.S.A. Enters Into Collaborative Research Agreements With Massachusetts General Hospital And Brigham And Women's Hospital

BOSTON, November 13, 2012 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., has entered into respective collaborative research agreements with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) to develop biomedical optical imaging and medical robotics technologies, among other initiatives. The overall goal of the agreements is to develop and commercialize unique medical devices for a variety of applications including detection of cardiovascular disease, brain functional imaging, robotics-assisted neurosurgery and miniature endoscopy. Canon U.S.A. is working in conjunction with its parent, Canon Inc., on this endeavor.

This collaboration involves technology experts from the MGH Wellman Center for Photomedicine, MGH Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, MGH Pathology Imaging and Communication Technology (PICT) Center, BWH National Center for Image Guided Therapy and BWH Center for Image-based Phenotyping. Together with the support of research and development staff from Canon U.S.A. and Canon Inc., they will work towards a common vision of pairing optics with pioneering diagnosis.

"Canon is very excited to be collaborating with these world-class hospitals to help solve clinical challenges facing healthcare communities worldwide," said Dr. Toshiaki Ikoma, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Canon Inc. "Canon is committed to enhancing our worldwide R&D efforts while emphasizing our medical imaging through the creation of the Healthcare Optics Research Laboratory in Boston. The mission of the new laboratory is to research, develop, and facilitate the commercialization of unique medical devices. While we are in the very early stages of our research, we look forward to a long affiliation with one another to help ensure the results of our clinical findings are implemented in the future."

"These agreements are quite different from the usual academic-industrial agreements because we will be working together to bring new MGH- and BWH-invented technologies from their current, very early stage, through prototype and scale-up, to our ultimate goals of FDA approval and clinical adoption," noted Dr. Frances Toneguzzo, executive director of the Office of Research Ventures & Licensing that manages innovations developed at MGH and BWH. "Together the parties will be dedicated to developing this technology from its basic scientific principles all the way to initial prototyping within the biological research and clinical environments with the ultimate goal of bringing these products to the patient."

Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $600 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. For more information about Massachusetts General Hospital, visit www.massgeneral.org.

Brigham and Women's Hospital, a non-profit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is dedicated to serving the needs of the local and global community, providing the highest quality health care to patients and their families, expanding the boundaries of medicine through research and educating the next generation of health care professionals. For more information about Brigham and Women's Hospital, visit www.brighamandwomens.org.

Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leader in the fields of professional and consumer imaging equipment and information systems. Canon's extensive range of products includes copying machines, inkjet and laser printers, cameras, video equipment, medical equipment and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment. Originally established in 1937 as Precision Optical Industry, Co., Ltd., a camera manufacturer, Canon has successfully diversified and globalized to become a worldwide industry leader in professional and consumer imaging systems and solutions.

With over 200,000 employees worldwide, Canon has manufacturing and marketing subsidiaries in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania; and a global R&D network with companies based in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. In 2012, Canon U.S.A. has received the PCMag.com Readers' Choice Award for Service and Reliability in the digital camera and printer categories for the ninth consecutive year, and for camcorders for the past two years. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.

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† Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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